Viewing Thread:
"Tyla."

I was going to e-mail you, but thought it would be better opened for discussion.

How hard did you find it going completely freelance? Did you save up squillions beforehand (I remember reading somewhere that you earnt on average 36k per year working for various agencies, is that right?). So did you make sure you were financially comfortable and set yourself a period to see how much work you could get over? I mean, it's every designer's dream to be their own boss, but how can someone averagely skilled, like me, afford it? Do you have a wife/kids/hamster to look after? What were their opinions on you effectively taking a risk that you'd find work?

I'm quite unhappy at my new workplace, because I'm not getting as much control over design as I wanted, and to be honest the bloke who runs it is a bit of a nob, and I don't know how much longer I can work for him. I could quite happily sit and build the sites I've just made over the last three months, and take the portion of money I had to share with them. The only thing they did for me was find the work - is this how you're managing to cope, finding work for yourself? Obviously that's the essence of being your own boss, but there are only so many antique and brick-a-brack shops that need websites before you have to find proper work that pays bills. Do you get work offers from larger companies?

Personally, I'd love to go completely freelance, but ultimately I'm not sure I have the businesshead to pull it off. I can design sites all day long with confidence now, and need the freedom to do so before I explode with frustration.

btw, anyone that works as a designer/coder/developer is welcome to input - I only know for sure that Tyla does it, and has just gone freelance. Ta-ta!

Have you thought about, instead of doing sites for companies, which can be annoying, having to spend ages giving them what they want, setting up a site selling templates, like templatemonsters.com?

Make your templates, (you said you enjoy making sites, and can do alot a day), make lots, just add them to the database, give a price and a unique price.

I dont know how successful that could be, but with the right advertising, and maybe getting friends on the job (designing friends) you could make a big selection.

And also, doing sites for companies aswell as this.

Tyla wrote:
Owrd of mouth is probably more powerful than any other method of finding work.

I will vouch for that. Most of my freelance stuff comes through word of mouth now. I've got 2 sites lined up to do after I've finished the one I'm working on at the moment. So much work!

Garin wrote:
> Tyla wrote:
> So far this month I have landed:
>
> 1 x simple code build @ £350
> 1 x Update @ £700
> 1 x Redesign & Database @ £2500
> 1 x Full project @ £2500
> 1x 2 weeks working for a firm in london on a conversion @
> £180/day (£1800)
>
> I suppose the interesting part for monkey_man & co is where you
> got that work from. It wouldn't surprise me to find that
> contacts/recommendations played a large part in it.

Apart from the London job which I found through another forum I use, the rest all came from reccomendations. Owrd of mouth is probably more powerful than any other method of finding work.

Tyla wrote:
> So far this month I have landed:
>
> 1 x simple code build @ £350
> 1 x Update @ £700
> 1 x Redesign & Database @ £2500
> 1 x Full project @ £2500
> 1x 2 weeks working for a firm in london on a conversion @
> £180/day (£1800)

I suppose the interesting part for monkey_man & co is where you got that work from. It wouldn't surprise me to find that contacts/recommendations played a large part in it.

Tyla wrote:
> idiot managers and narrow minded developers!;)

Nail. Head. Bang.

I charged £50 for the last website I built.

Of course "built" is short for "threw together in a day".

[URL]http://holtheathtrailercentre.co.uk/[/URL]

Coin wrote:
> Hmm...
>
> 1,000 a month? 12K a year, right? I thought web-designers (no
> offence) made more than that...

As monkey said, it's comfort zone. Working for yourself is a lot different from a 9-5 wher eyou income is assured as long as you trun up for work. MY wife works too but only makes £12k/yr, on a basic £1000 month for myself, thet makes a joint income of £24k/yr, wwhich is plenty for living costs with one child. Anything I make above that is "expendible" income, which I can use on wnything I want.

So far this month I have landed:

1 x simple code build @ £350
1 x Update @ £700
1 x Redesign & Database @ £2500
1 x Full project @ £2500
1x 2 weeks working for a firm in london on a conversion @ £180/day (£1800)

Projected income for next 3 months:

£7850.00

= estimated anual income of :£31400.00 if I can keep the momentum up based on these figures.

Not bad for someone who;s only been at this fullt ime for 2 weeks!;)

N.B: Spelling damn aweful, got very very hammered last night and still suffering!

FWIW, avaerage wage for a website designer in Oxfordshire = £18 - £25k, so I'm already matching that without the hassle of committees, idiot managers and narrow minded developers!;)

Yeah, but that's the comfort zone. If you set yourself a low target, then everything else is a bonus. Plus I have a partner (not in a homo way, she's a girl), so it's not like all the living costs will be mine.

EDIT: I've had temping jobs that make 12k before - that's plenty to live on.

Hmm...

1,000 a month? 12K a year, right? I thought web-designers (no offence) made more than that...

Garin wrote:
> [URL]http://wiki.workalone.co.uk[/URL]
>
> Helpful wiki on the subject, mostly resources, but a few articles on
> freelancing in general too.

Excellent linkage, just signed up to XchangeTeam thanks to that.